What’s Behind Indonesia’s China Drone Buy?
Purchase signals Southeast Asian state’s efforts to boost its capabilities and the inroads Chinese drones are making in some markets.
By
Prashanth Parameswaran
February 27, 2018
On February 25, reports surfaced citing sources within Indonesia’s military as confirming that the Southeast Asian state had agreed to acquire four drones from China. Though the reports are merely a reiteration of what Indonesian defense officials had said last year, they nonetheless reinforce Jakarta’s efforts to boost its capabilities in this respect and the inroads that Chinese drones are making in some key markets.
As I have been noting in these pages, Indonesian defense officials have been signaling the need to boost the country’s drone capabilities, recognizing that the country does not have nearly enough vessels and aircraft to fully monitor its vast airspace and coastline. So it is no surprise that we have seen Jakarta aim to make purchases in this regard from countries such as the United States (See: “
New Indonesia Drones Spotlight US-ASEAN Maritime Security Initiative”).
Indonesia has also been looking at China as an option as well. Though Chinese drones are certainly far less capable than those manufactured by more established players such as the United States or Israel, they are also significantly cheaper which is a draw for more budget-conscious countries like Indonesia. Beijing, for its part, has also been stepping up its showcasing of its capabilities, including its family of Wing Loong UAVs for export, with a debut appearance at the Singapore Airshow this year indicating its desire to target key Asian markets.
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Last July, Laksda Leonardi, the head of Indonesia’s defense ministry’s Defense Facilities Agency, said that China had offered to meet Jakarta’s requirement for the Indonesian Air Force to acquire UAVs. Though few concrete additional details were provided at time or subsequently, Leonardi’s comments, which also touched on the greater difficulty of acquiring some of these capabilities from more established manufacturers, it was indicative of Indonesia’s willingness to consider a wide range of players for its defense needs.
On February 25, in further evidence of what had previously been reported, IHS Jane’s cited multiple sources within Indonesia’s military as confirming that the government had indeed acquired four strike-capable Wing Loong I medium-altitude, long-endurance UAVs from Chinese state-owned aerospace and defense company Aviation Industry Corporation of China back in 2017.
According to these sources, the UAVs would be operated by the Indonesian Air Force’s Aviation Squadron 51 in West Kalimantan which currently operates Israeli-made Aerostar tactical unmanned aircraft system. As IHS Jane’s noted, with the introduction of the Wing Loong I, it would be Indonesia’s first composite UAV squadron with two different aircraft types. That is testament to both Jakarta’s willingness to turn to multiple manufacturers to realize its urgent requirements and the inroads that Chinese defense products could make in key Asian markets like Indonesia where factors such as cost and speed of delivery, rather that robustness of capability or experience of manufacturing, may matter more.
https://thediplomat.com/2018/02/whats-behind-indonesias-china-drone-buy/
New Indonesia Drones Spotlight US-ASEAN Maritime Security Initiative
Reports of new UAVs for Indonesia highlight Washington’s ongoing efforts to boost regional maritime security capabilities.
By
Prashanth Parameswaran
February 24, 2018
This week, reports surfaced that the Indonesian Navy would receive four new drones from the U.S. government. The reports once again put the spotlight on ongoing U.S. attempts to boost the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities of Southeast Asian states to boost maritime domain awareness.
As I have noted before, while the idea of building allied and partner maritime capabilities is far from new, under former U.S. President Barack Obama, Washington had accelerated U.S. maritime security assistance to Southeast Asian states. Though there were various sources of U.S. maritime capacity-building efforts, one of these was the Southeast Asia Maritime Security Initiative (MSI), which allotted $425 million for a number of countries including five main Southeast Asian states – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam – geared towards enhancing regional maritime domain awareness (MDA) (See: “
America’s New Maritime Security Initiative“).
Indonesia has been recognized by Washington as a key player within this initiative as well as from the broader regional perspective as the world’s largest archipelagic state and a significant maritime actor in Southeast Asia (See: “
The New US-Indonesia Strategic Partnership”). From Jakarta’s perspective, defense officials have long recognized that the country does not have enough vessels and aircraft to fully monitor what is the world’s second longest coastline, and the challenges of acquiring and then coordinating the capabilities to do so are well-known (See: “
Confronting Indonesia’s Maritime Coordination Challenge“).
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For Indonesia, MSI was intended to bolster its maritime surveillance and radar capabilities through various means, including improving command and control relationships between and capabilities among maritime security forces, including its new coast guard, as well as other efforts such as technical advisory support in advance of U.S. exercises and subject matter expert exchanges to support maritime ISR modernization efforts.
That maritime security cooperation has continued on under U.S. President Donald Trump as the administration looks to implement its Indo-Pacific strategy by building out collaboration with key regional states including in Southeast Asia (See: “
Trump’s Indo-Pacific Strategy Challenge”). Indeed, as I noted last month, maritime security was one of the areas addressed during U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’ trip to Indonesia (See: “
What Does Mattis’ Trip Say About Trump’s Asia Policy?”).
On February 23, in a further demonstration of continuing efforts in this realm, reports surfaced that the Indonesian Navy would soon receive four Insitu ScanEagle surveillance unmanned aerial vessels (UAVs) from the U.S. government. A source from the TNI-AL’s headquarters informed
IHS Jane’s that the UAV system and its associated equipment and launchers were provided under a grant by the U.S. government under MSI.
No further details were provided, including total cost and delivery date. But the report is in line with both Indonesian efforts to invest in more equipment for its military modernization as well as ongoing U.S. attempts to assist in boosting the maritime capabilities of regional states.
https://thediplomat.com/2018/02/new...tlight-us-asean-maritime-security-initiative/
dinikmati dulu aja om beritanya, sambil nunggu bantingan resmi (kalau ada)